The duo is distinguished by a very special musicality, a mutual sensitivity and a common breath in every piece. Straight away, their music sounds organic at means extraordinarily natural or even self-evident. But that is the very thing it is not For the two musicians in the duo are not exactly well-known from the same musical worlds: One: a lutenist specializing in Early Music. The other: a saxophonist from contemporary jazz. The duo consists of Axel Wolf und Hugo Siegmeth.

They discovered musical common ground by coincidence: through a few notes the very jazz-versed lutenist played in the dressing room the two musicians were sharing. Soon, they sat down together, rehearsing pieces with each other. The result was the duo programme ´Flow´, released on CD by OehmsClassics in 2015, with evergreens from both sides, from John Dowland’s ´Flow my tears´ up to Gershwin’s Summertime. And with the two of them, the pieces sounded as if a 400-year-old, long-necked lute (or a replica) had always been the ideal accompanying instrument in some old damp jazz cellar. And as if Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna, the only surviving fragment of an otherwise lost opera about the mythological figure of Ariadne, simply sounds best when it also sobs in sublime plaintiveness with a jazz tenor saxophone played in the modern manner. No wonder! The feat of the two musicians is that they do not perform superfcial and scintillating classical-jazz crossover with fast effects for the fast (and quickly forgotten) market, but show the convergence of two musicians who especially appreciate shades of sound. And both of them also venture to improvise in the other’s idiom. It is sensitive empathizing with very subtle fingertips. This is the music by Axel Wolf and Hugo Siegmeth, and it has been celebrated by the music press, always with special reference to joy in musical encounter and the empathy they demonstrate.

Roland Spiegel - BR-Klassik